Friends House Hospitality, the company that runs the catering and events side of business for British Quakers at Friends House in London, has announced that they are starting a new scheme to train ex-offenders in catering skills, which will also give successful participants a qualification that can help them when looking for a job. The…

“He is a Quaker, and he acted like one throughout. He was completely nonviolent and always acted that way and spoke that way.” This is what lawyer April Downs told the Huffington Post after her client Casey Webber was found not guilty of charges that could have led to a sentence of up to 80…

Norwegian Quakers are gathering today for their annual yearly meeting and are celebrating a continuing presence of Quakers in Norway for 200 years since 1814. The Norwegians’ Society of Friends began in 1814 when released Norwegian prisoners from prison ships in England returned home and began silent meetings for worship in Stavanger and Oslo (which…

Quaker values are at the heart of what it means to be British, it was claimed by a Conservative politician in a Westminster Hall debate last month. Tony Baldry, the member of parliament for north Oxfordshire, was taking part in a debate about teaching British values when he drew on the Quaker faith for inspiration.…

Quakers in Britain have re-stated their opposition to nuclear weapons ahead of the publication of Trident Commission report that examined whether the UK should retain its nuclear deterrent. The Trident Commission was set up by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) and funders include the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Ploughshares Fund. The…

The issue of funeral poverty has been highlighted by Quaker Social Action this month as they raised the issue of high funeral costs on BBC Radio 4’s consumer programme, You and Yours. Speaking on the programme, funeral poverty campaigner Heather Kennedy said: “There’s this Victorian legacy of shame around not being able to give someone…

This week sees the launch of a new short film made by young people questioning the promotion of military activities in their schools. The film, “Engage: the military and young people” is set to launched on Thursday 26/06/2014 with the first showing taking place at Friends House in London. Commissioned by campaigning organisation ForcesWatch and made…

In case you’ve ever wondered who to thank for the Glastonbury Festival, it seems that as well as Michael Eavis and his family, it’s the Quakers to whom you should be grateful. In the build up to the 2014 event The Guardian ran an article with festival organiser Michael Eavis answering questions from famous people.…

The organisers of the annual meeting of Quakers in Britain, Yearly Meeting Gathering, have announced that this year’s event in Bath in 08/2014 is so full that people not booked to attend must not come. Over 1,900 people are booked to attend the event, meaning that the number of Quakers gathered together in Britain will…

Over 10,000 people have signed a petition calling on a historically Quaker-owned company to end its sexist signs promoting boys and girls shoes. C&J Clark International Ltd, known as Clarks, has faced widespread criticism from shoppers who object to the slogans in its stores that say “Because boys test their shoes to destruction, so do…

Former broadcaster and current editor of The Friend Ian Kirk-Smith shared insights from his career in the media on Friday night at a public lecture at The King’s Hospital School in Dublin, as Quakers gathered for Ireland Yearly Meeting. Ian Kirk-Smith drew on his diverse experiences across anthropological fieldwork, writing, radio production and film directing…

Quaker support for young Zimbabweans is set to continue, it has been announced, despite the forthcoming closure of the The Hlekweni Friends Rural Service Centre in Zimbabwe later this year. Friends of Hlekweni, the British charity that supports the activities around Hlekweni near Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwean, has made the announcement that their support for…

Gloucester Quakers win award Quakers in Gloucester have been given a double boost recently as they have celebrated the reopening of their meeting house and the city’s Gay and Lesbian Community has named them as their “person of the year”. Gloucester Quakers’ 19th century meeting house was gutted by fire in 09/2012 after an arson…

A programme assistant, Chris Diskin, from the Quaker Council for European Affairs is set to tour Quaker meetings in Britain to help Quakers to explore the negative impact of Free Trade Agreements on economic justice. Chris Diskin’s work in Europe focuses in particular on the European Union-US TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) and the…

A group of Quakers held a meeting for worship in the atrium of the British Museum today as part of a protest against the museum’s connections with multinational oil company BP and to highlight concerns about climate change. As well as bearing placards calling on the museum to end its relationship with BP, some of…